‘The internet cannot be a safe place for terrorists and child sex traffickers.’

Today on the Senate floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) highlighted the importance of the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act and urged his colleagues to vote in favor of the legislation this week. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks are below.

“Today, the internet and other forms of technology have made certain forms of predatory, perverted behavior easier to engage in without getting caught. The legislation we’re voting on this week aims to protect our children and provide justice to victims of human trafficking and to make sure federal laws do not protect profiteering web domains where sex trafficking occurs.”

“The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, or SESTA, would allow sex trafficking victims to have their day in court by eliminating federal liability protections for technology providers that knowingly facilitate online sex trafficking. It would allow state and local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute providers that violate federal sex trafficking laws. I’m proud to be one of the original cosponsors of this legislation and work on it with my colleagues to get it to this point today.”

“Senator Portman, the Junior Senator from Ohio, has been this bill’s greatest champion since its inception. He has been informing us time and time again of the ways in which sex trafficking has moved, as he likes to say, from the street corner to the smartphone.”

“Free speech can’t be used as an excuse to offer young people into sexual servitude, and the internet cannot be a safe place for terrorists and child sex traffickers.”

“I hope our colleagues will join me in voting for this important legislation this week.”

Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, is a member of the Senate Finance, Intelligence, and Judiciary Committees.